522 – Contributed Poster Presentations: Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences
From "Faster Is Slower" to "Faster Is Faster"
Guillermo Frank
Universidad Tecnol´ogica Nacional
Ignacio M. Sticco
Universidad de Buenos Aires
Fernando Cornes
Claudio O. Dorso
Ciudad Universitaria
The "faster is slower" effect raises when crowded people push each other to escape through an exit during a panic situation. As individuals push harder, a statistical slowing down in the evacuation time can be achieved. The slowing down is caused by the presence of small groups of pedestrians (say, a small human cluster) that temporary block the way out when trying to leave the room. The pressure on the pedestrians belonging to this blocking cluster raises for increasing anxiety levels and/or larger number of individuals trying to leave the room through the same door. Our investigation shows, however, that very high pressures alters the dynamics in the blocking cluster, and thus, changes the statistics of the time delays along the escaping process. It can be acknowledged a reduction in the long lasting delays, while the overall evacuation performance improves. We present results on this novel phenomenon taking place beyond the "faster is slower" regime.